"All this region is very level and full of forests, vines and butternut trees. No Christian has ever visited this land and we had all the misery of the world trying to paddle the river upstream." Samuel de Champlain

Sunday, May 10, 2015

When I make my bed

I knew you had a problem when I used to go back to make the bed and the sheets were still damp with sweat and the pillow I had covered with a towel had big stains of spit and blood.

But still you would not want to talk about it.

So I took the habit of uncovering the bed, folding back the sheets and covers over the foot of the bed, and changing the towel over the pillow every day. The bed would take the whole day to dry off.

But still you would not want to talk about it.

These days, when I go back in the bedroom to make the bed, I am reminded of those awful days when I felt something was terribly wrong, but still you would not want to talk about it.

I'm the second generation of my family that lives in Richelieu, Quebec, in Canada. My family tree, both from my mother's and my father's side, has its roots in Quebec since the beginning of the 1600s: my ancestors crossed the ocean from France, leaving Perche and Normandy behind them. Both French AND English are my mother tongues: I learned to talk in both languages when I was a baby, and both my parents were perfectly bilingual too.